The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

museum, and Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. Comparing the critical writing available now on Shyam and on Marawili it is apparent that, in Australia, a discourse on contemporary Australian Indigenous art has developed since this time that positions Marawili’s paintings in a contemporary context. In contrast, indigenous and vernacular practices of India have only recently begun to enter into the larger discourse on contemporary art, rather than a museological, ethnographic or anthropological one. 10 Since the late 1990s, there have been only a small number of important exhibitions by eminent curators such as Jyotindra Jain, GulamMohammed Sheikh and Chaitanya Sambrani, which have considered Indian indigenous and rural-based art in the same context as contemporary, metropolitan-based work. More recently, the ambitious exhibitions ‘Vernacular 1’ and ‘Vernacular 2’, curated by Annapurna Garimella from the Devi Foundation’s collection, have attempted to develop appropriate terminology and forums, and theorists such as Ranjit Hoskote and Nancy Adajania have added their voices to the debate. The practices themselves have continued to break new ground and challenge expectations, with the inclusion of indigenous and vernacular artists in major international contemporary projects a relatively recent development. The Wall Art Festival in 2013 set up an exchange between Japanese and Indian artists (including Rajesh Chaitya Vangad) to contribute murals to schools and other public buildings in rural communities in both countries. Vangad has also collaborated with contemporary photographer Gauri Gill. Curator Nancy Adajania included Jangarh Singh Shyam’s work in the 2012 Gwangju Biennale, although she faced criticism for positioning his work in this contemporary context. Members of the Chitrakar community worked with British artist Tony Knox in the Liverpool Biennale in 2010. In advance of the exhibition he visited their village and learnt the techniques of scroll MONIMALA CHITRAKAR Peora, West Bengal, India b.c.1970 Virus 2015 Naturalcolouronmill-madepaperwith fabric backing /304.8cm x 50.8cm (approx.) / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection OPPOSITE KALYAN JOSHI Bhilwara, Rajasthan, India b.1969 Hanuman chalisa 2015 Natural colour on cloth / 121.9 x 91.5cm (approx.) / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection 180—181 AWORLD UNFOLDS